ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Thursday cleared the government’s bill to increase the number of judges of Islamabad High Court (IHC) from seven to 10.

The committee, however, rejected the proposal to appoint local judges instead of induction from other provinces and territories in the court.

The bill tabled by the law ministry proposed that owing to the increase of cases in the IHC the sanctioned posts of judges be increased.

Last month, Islamabad High Court Bar Association President Raja Inam Ameen Minhas had informed the committee that against the seven sanctioned posts currently there were only four judges in the IHC.

Proposal to appoint local judges instead of induction from provinces and territories rejected

There are over 18,000 cases pending adjudication in the court, he said.

The Islamabad High Court Bar Council and Islamabad High Court Bar Association supported the bill but called for increasing the number of judges to 11 and appointing the judges only from Islamabad.

Minister for Law and Justice Dr Farogh Nasim last month had given an undertaking to amend the bill in order to exclude lawyers practicing in other provinces from the vacant positions of the IHC judges.

Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar on Thursday supported the demand of lawyers for the appointment of local judges in the IHC.

Committee Chairman Mohammad Javed Abbasi also agreed on the proposal and said an aspirant for the judge’s slot may not be the local but they should be a practicing lawyer in the IHC.

But Senator Farooq H. Naek opposed the proposal and said since the bill was introduced by the government, it could either be rejected or cleared it as it is.

He suggested that in case a lawmaker thinks that judges of the IHC must be appointed from the local bar, they could move the proposal as a private member bill.

The committee then unanimously approved the bill to increase the strength of the judges.

The committee also considered bills introduced by Senator Rehman Malik to specify the appointments of members in the CDA board and inducting civil servants in it.

Senator Naek opposed the bill saying the law was clear and the government can appoint either civil servants or professionals as members of the CDA board.

He said instead of civil servants, the board members should be architects, town planners and engineers to maintain beauty of the federal capital.

Mr Malik then withdrew the bill but said he would table it again after fine tuning it.

The committee also considered a bill introduced by the committee chairman to establish new benches of the provincial high courts to facilitate people living in far-flung areas.

He proposed an amendment to Article 198 of the Constitution for creation of new benches of the high courts.

He asked the law ministry to increase the sanctioned posts of judges in the provincial high courts since the number of pending cases was increasing gradually.

The committee cleared the bill as well.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2019